Quick police work led to hit-and-run arrest

Justin Pottle

Published 7:15 pm, Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Greenwich Police were able to make a quick arrest in this weekend's fatal hit-and-run incident in Byram by piecing together shattered car parts at the scene of the crime, court documents show. Their investigation led to the arrest of a Ridgefield man for the death of 21-year-old Meghan Beebe, of Middlebury. Beebe was dragged for several blocks beneath a low-riding sedan early Saturday morning, and later died from her injuries.

Following the initial reporting of the accident, police learned from a witness to the crime, a friend of Beebe's with whom she'd been out that night, that the offending vehicle was a reddish sedan with tinted windows, police said.

Starting their investigation with this rough description in mind, Greenwich Police began at the site of the immediate collision in the Williams Street parking lot, finding there a number of fragments of a vehicle's undercarriage. Working among the pieces, mostly molded plastic of varying sizes and shapes, Greenwich Police determined they had been part of an air dam -- a front spoiler under the bumper, with which the car had been modified. According to court documents, the air dam had likely shattered from the impact of the collision with the victim.

The collected fragments yielded surprising details: One had been spray painted red, another, most crucially, bore a part number. Police were able to track the number back to a part belonging to a specific make and model of car: Pontiac G6s made from 2005 to 2010. The finding was quickly sent out to residents via media outlets and Facebook on Sunday, but police did not need outside assistance for the evidence to yield results.

"The driver of that vehicle drove back to the accident scene acting like nothing happened," a town resident who witnessed the subsequent arrest told Greenwich Time.

At approximately 7 p.m. Sunday, a patrolling officer saw what was now a familiar car in a familiar place, police said.

"A diligent patrol officer located the vehicle in the William Street parking lot," said Greenwich Police Lt. Kraig Gray.

The Pontiac appeared to have sustained damage to its air dam, and a contingent of detectives arrived to assess the car and damage to its front and undercarriage.

"I saw the detectives looking under the car and heard them confirm that it was it," the witness said.

The car was registered in the name of 26-year-old Vyacheslav Cherepov, of Ridgefield. According to police reports, authorities located him a short distance away in a nearby establishment -- matching the appearance described by Beebe's friend.

Upon confrontation, Cherepov reportedly related that he had expected the police would question him, given that he drove a similar car to the one they were looking for, according to court documents. He voluntarily agreed to questioning both at the scene and back at GPD headquarters.

"A tow truck pulled up and he put the car onto the truck," the witness said. "Then several police cars and undercover police escorted the towing truck away from the street."

Less than 48 hours after the accident occurred, Cherepov was facing vehicular manslaughter and evading responsibility charges.

At headquarters, police said Cherepov remained cooperative, but was adamant in denying any involvement, according to court documents. Nonetheless, police obtained a search warrant for his vehicle, and began the task of matching the pieces of molded plastic recovered at the crime scene to the damaged air dam, according to court documents. Focusing on the largest pieces, detectives were eventually able to find "unique and identifiable" matches between break patterns on the remaining air dam and fragments in five places.

With the preliminary evidence at hand, Greenwich police, in consultation with the Stamford States Attorney's office, determined probable cause to arrest Cherepov. He was assigned a $500,000 bond, and when he could not post bail was placed in a GPD holding cell.

Despite Cherepov's arrest, much work is left to be done, Gray said.

"This is still in the early stage of this investigation," he said in a press conference Monday.

According to court documents, the forensic examination of the vehicle will continue for several more days, which police hope will turn up new evidence and matches between recovered fragments and the vehicle.

Cherepov pleaded not guilty to all charges at a preliminary court hearing on Monday. He will next appear in state Superior Court in Stamford on Jan. 21.